SACE Stage 2 Modern History study materials
SACE Stage 2 Modern History study resources

SACE Stage 2 Modern History flashcards

SACE Stage 2 Modern History · Build recall with a focused review session.

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

SACE Stage 2 weighting
School assessment contributes 70% and external assessment 30% of the final grade in Stage 2 Modern History.
Folio weighting
The folio of skills tasks is worth 35% of the total subject grade, equal in value to the individual historical study.
Individual historical study
A research task worth 35% of the grade, requiring a research question, plan, and final product of up to 2000 words with annotated sources.
Source origin
The origin of a source covers who produced it, when, where, and in what form, and is the starting point for any evaluation.
Source purpose
Purpose is the reason a source was created, such as to persuade, record, justify, or entertain, and shapes how its content should be read.
Reliability versus usefulness
Reliability concerns trustworthiness of content; usefulness concerns value as evidence for a specific inquiry. A biased source may be unreliable yet useful.
Historical perspective
Perspective refers to the values, beliefs and circumstances of a source's creator, which explain why the source presents events as it does.
Continuity and change
A skill requiring explanation of what persisted and what altered across a period, with evidence for the pace and extent of change.
Arguable hypothesis
A hypothesis must be contestable and supportable by evidence; a question settled by a single uncontested fact is not suitable for research.
Annotated source list
A list of up to ten sources, each with a brief note explaining its content, origin and relevance to the research question.
Performance standards A to E
Grades are reported A to E; top-band work shows sustained evaluation of sources and a reasoned, evidence-based argument rather than description.
Citation requirement
All sources used in the historical study must be consistently cited with author, title, date and place of publication.
Research question scope
A workable research question is narrow enough to answer within the word limit and broad enough to require analysis rather than recall.
Primary source
A source produced during or by participants in the period studied, such as letters, speeches, photographs, diaries or official records.
Secondary source
A source created after the period by someone interpreting it, such as a history text, documentary or scholarly article.
Corroboration
Corroboration is confirming a claim by comparing independent sources; agreement across sources with different origins strengthens confidence in the claim.
Examination length
The external examination is three hours long and is completed under supervised conditions, contributing 30% of the final grade.
Examination sections
The examination contains a sources analysis section and an essay section; both must be attempted because marks come from each.
Sources analysis progression
Source questions typically move from comprehension, to inference, to evaluation of usefulness and reliability, requiring increasingly evaluative responses.
Essay evidence requirement
Essays must draw on evidence from at least two historical periods or contexts studied in the course to demonstrate breadth.
Essay mark criteria
Essay marks reward argument, use of evidence, evaluation of interpretations or sources, and structure; narrative recount earns limited credit.
Targeted usefulness judgment
Usefulness is judged against the specific question asked, weighing provenance and limitations rather than offering a general verdict on reliability.
Time allocation
A practical convention is roughly one-third of examination time on source analysis and two-thirds on the essay, with brief planning before writing.
Attribution of evidence
Quotations and statistics used as evidence must be attributed to their source; unattributed factual claims are treated as unsupported in marking.
Inference from source
An inference is a conclusion drawn beyond the literal content of a source, supported by evidence within the source and its context.
Provenance
Provenance is the record of a source's origins and custody, used to assess whether its creator was positioned to know or to persuade.
Tone and emphasis
Tone and emphasis are analytical features of a source, revealing the producer's attitude through word choice, omission and prominence given to details.
Silence in a source
What a source omits can be significant evidence; silences may reveal the limits of the producer's knowledge or deliberate exclusion.
Historiographical interpretation
An interpretation is a historian's explanation of events; evaluating differing interpretations requires comparing their evidence and assumptions.
Thesis statement
A thesis statement is a single clear claim answering the essay question, which the body paragraphs support with evidence and reasoning.
Paragraph structure
An effective body paragraph states a claim, presents evidence, explains how the evidence supports the claim, and links to the essay question.
Conclusion function
A conclusion restates the argument in light of the evidence presented, without introducing new evidence or unqualified claims.